Fast forward: The winter-break workweek speeds along, intrepid innovators – it’s Wednesday already and all downhill from here (the positive version).
We’re racing with you step for step on this fleet Feb. 22. Let’s innovate – and make it quick!
Mixed up: Repent, and enjoy a margarita.
You think? We begin our Mardi Gras Recovery Program with World Thinking Day, an annual Girl Guides and Girl Scouts celebration encouraging gender equality and social justice, with a dash of global sisterhood.
Give it up: If yesterday was Fat Tuesday, today must be Ash Wednesday, a multidenominational holy day of prayer and repentance kicking off Lent, the major Christian liturgical observance of Jesus’ 40-day, temptation-filled desert fast, complete with symbolic personal sacrifice.
And if today is Feb. 22, it must also be National Margarita Day, which definitely clashes with the personal-sacrifice motif and seems redundant after Fat Tuesday, but there it is.
Corny: Celebrate instead with popcorn, which was already well-known to Native Americans when it was introduced to English colonists 393 years ago today.
Made America great, then: Not to pop the bubble of anyone who supports this, this or this, but it was abolitionists, “Free Soil Democrats” and foreign-born U.S. citizens who founded the Republican Party – the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln – which held its first national convention on Feb. 22, 1856.
Dear Johns: Also founded on this date was Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore’s groundbreaking medical-education marvel, which opened its doors in 1876.
It’s your dime: F.W. Woolworth’s five-and-dimes filled brick-and-mortar spaces for 118 years.
A nickel’s worth: Other Feb. 22 openings include entrepreneur F.W. Woolworth’s first five-and-dime department store, which went into business in upstate Utica in 1879 (and quickly went out of business – though the retail chain remained unbroken until 1997).
Miraculous: And it was Feb. 22, 1980, when the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team – mostly amateur college players – conjured the “Miracle on Ice,” defeating the bigger, badder and heavily favored Soviet men’s team 4-3 in Lake Placid.
The underdog Americans, coached by one-time New York Rangers Head Coach Herb Brooks, beat Finland two days later to capture the gold.
Scouting ahead: British military officer Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (1857-1941) – a British lord, Army veteran and writer who founded the worldwide Scouting movement – would be 166 years old today.
Founder and president: And a soldier and a businessman, too … but Washington considered himself a farmer first.
Also born on Feb. 22 were First President of the United States George Washington (1732-1799), who also had an entrepreneurial side; German-American aviation engineer Paul Kollsman (1900-1982), who invented the altimeter; American telecommunications engineer Irving “Al” Gross (1918-2000), who invented the “walkie-talkie”; unmistakable American television announcer Dominick George “Don” Pardo (1918-2014), the voice of Saturday night for four decades; and American actress, director, producer, talk show host, brand endorser and author Drew Barrymore (born 1975), who’s come a long way since Gertie.
Way above par: And take a bow, American golfer Amy Alcott! The Ladies Professional Golf Association legend – a World Golf Hall of Fame member with 29 LPGA Tour wins and top-tier course-design skills – turns 67 today.
Wish the swinger well at editor@innovateli.com, where we tee up your news tips and your calendar events find the greens, every time.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
To be continued: From the Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over file comes Codagenix, a stalwart Long Island biotech celebrating an extended funding round.
The Long Island Bioscience Park resident has received add-on support from the Pune City-based private biotech Serum Institute of India, extending a Series B funding round – which technically “closed” in 2020 – to the $25 million mark. The Serum Institute joins existing investors Topspin Consumer Partners, a Mamaroneck-based VC and frequent Codagenix supporter; billionaire James Simons’ private Euclidean Capital hedge fund; and New York City/San Francisco-based life-sciences VC firm Adjuvant Capital.
The 2012 startup’s proprietary synthetic-biology platform recodes nefarious viruses at the genomic level, producing weaker strands and, hopefully, low-dose vaccines. Founded by Farmingdale State College Biology Professor J. Robert Coleman and Stony Brook University Assistant Research Professor Steffan Mueller, Codagenix is currently preparing a Phase 1 trial of a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus – involving healthy infants and toddlers – that “further demonstrates our platform’s ability to design custom virotherapeutics,” according to Coleman.
Tunnel vision: The latest imaging tech energizes North Shore University Hospital’s new MRI suite.
Inside edition: North Shore University Hospital has raised the curtain on an all-new, $21 million magnetic resonance imaging suite.
Northwell Health’s Manhasset hospital has completed upgrades of the 6,700-square-foot suite inside its Cohen Pavilion, replacing a 40-year-old MRI room with three state-of-the-art MRI scanners (two 1.5-Tesla MRI machines and one 3-Tesla machine, for those keeping score) and bringing the hospital’s capacity to four total magnets. The new MRI super-suite is built to speed up the diagnosis process and otherwise reduce patient turnaround times, all while providing higher-quality scans that can detect smaller abnormalities.
The new suite also includes updated radiologist reading rooms, larger patient bays, expanded staff accommodations and all-new waiting and outpatient reception areas. “North Shore University Hospital is dedicated to providing the newest technologies to ensure the best clinical outcomes for our patients,” NSUH Medical Director David Hirschwerk said in a statement. “This updated MRI suite will allow our team to serve more patients and do more for the patients we see.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 24: John Wallace, powering communities forward.
If we had to pick a favorite moment from Season 3 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, we’d say it was everything said in Episodes 25 through 36.
Yeah, that’s the whole season – but Spark is really good stuff! One-on-one conversations with the movers and shakers shaping Long Island socioeconomics, filled with deep thoughts, brilliant innovation and lots of laughs … listen to this!
TOP OF THE SITE
Teaching the teachers: Stony Brook University’s Advanced Energy Center is helping Long Island “master teachers” bring new STEM content into K-12 classrooms.
They’ve seen worse: Regional commercial real estate experts are concerned – but not overly – about the state of their industry on Long Island.
A little something for yourself: You give and you give, always sharing this engaging newsletter with your fellow innovators. Now give yourself a gift – individual subscriptions are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Experts in media, law, healthcare, social services and other critical sectors give it to you straight in Voices, Innovate Long Island’s straight-from-the-C-suite smorgasbord of unique perspectives and best practices. Their top-rung experience is your can’t-miss lesson plan – learn to innovate from the very best.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Ten-digit danger: You shouldn’t log in – anywhere – with your phone number. Vox assesses risks.
Four-day sprint: The four-day workweek may be here to stay. The Wall Street Journal calculates productivity.
Seven-day marathon(s): Seven days, seven continents, seven marathons … one determined Canadian. The Calgary Herald catches up.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Zevx, an Arizona-based EV-power innovator, raised $20 million-plus in the first tranche of a funding round led by Reynolds Capital.
+ BlueTrace, a Maine-based traceability platform for seafood growers, wholesalers, distributors and dealers, raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by York IE, Maine Venture Fund and Coastal Enterprise Ventures.
+ NanoGraf, an Illinois-based battery-materials developer, raised $65 million in Series B funding led by Volta Energy Technologies, CC Industries, Emerald Technology Ventures and Material Impact, among others.
+ GrainChain, a Texas-based, blockchain-powered agricultural supply chain tracking platform, raised $29 million in funding backed by Overstock, Pelion Venture Partners, BYU Cougar Capital and others.
+ Puzzle, a California-based accounting platform for startups, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, FOG Ventures, XYZ, Felicis, Sterling Road, Kapor Capital, angels and Y-Combinator alumni.
+ memQ, an Illinois-based quantum-memory pioneer, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Quantonation, Exposition Ventures and the George Schultz Innovation Fund.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Nixon Peabody). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Good advice: What you need is a manager!
From the home office: Home-office tax deductions are harder than they used to be.
From the top: The best boost for employee mental health is a good manager.
From the heart: Well-worn life advice that’s cliché for a reason.
From scratch: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, where sophisticated legal solutions are customized to meet each client’s unique needs. Check them out.
